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Talk:BreakTheInternet/@comment-3575890-20170307211123
FUN FACT: You can be romantically attracted to the same sex, but not sexually attracted You can be romantically attracted to the opposite sex, but not sexually attracted You can be romantically attracted to all genders, but not sexually attracted You can be romantically attracted to genders that you are not sexually attracted to AND you can be romantically attracted to a person and not sexually attracted to anyone all at once Raphael is NOT straight. He is ace. And asexual people are NOT heterosexual. Now we do not even know if Raphael IS heteromantic in the first place. For all anyone knows, he could STILL fit under your traditional standard of what constitutes as LGBTQ. Just because he has feelings for Izzy, doesn’t mean he can’t be bi-romantic, pan-romantic, demi-romantic. In fact, as far as what attracts Raphael romantically, we have not a damn clue. BUT even if he is het-romantic, what we DO know is that he is not: heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, pansexual, demisexual, polysexual, etc because guess what, he is asexual. And that ain’t the same thing socially, contextually, systematically, as being straight one fucking bit. No. Raphael is Queer. I do not give a shit if he is romantically attracted to women, HE. IS. QUEER. And how is that? Because Queer is an umbrella term for sexual and gender minorities that are not heteroSEXUAL or not cisgender. Oh, but Ace is not officially included under the LGBT umbrella. Well, you know what else wasn’t always included under the umbrella? Transgender. The T was later added. Does this mean that before Transgender was officially recognized, it wasn’t a valid identity? Of course not. “Straight” is defined as being both heterosexual AND heteroromantic. Not one or the other. Because when you remove one from the other, you remove straight privilege. Think: what is straight privilege defined by? Normalization, universal acceptance, and belonging to a majority, none of which pertains to asexuality. In fact, only one percent of the world is asexual and that small percentage is severely underrepresented. As you’ll see in this fandom, a lot of people do not even yet recognize it as a valid sexual orientation and that is incredibly injurious to the ace community. Straightness, in respect to straight privilege, is a position of power. Aces have no straight privilege. Ace IS a marginalized sexuality. Beibg invalidated, being shunned by your friends and family, being made fun of, being labeled as a prude, freak, heartless, broken, an abnormal abomination of nature, someone who needs to be fixed or can never be loved by anyone for what they are, being perpetually held under the threat of corrective rape are all very much commonplace realities that ace people are faced with. Whether you think het-ace people are straight or not, does not mean that straight people see them as straight. Maybe it’s not as visible, but ace people face discrimination and harassment on a systematic level too. Raphael IS representation. Very rare representation at that. And you condescend to sit there and say that ace people are no different from cishet in terms of sexual orientation and privilege? I’m sorry, but how dare you? Raphael coming out as ace was so groundbreaking and it’s infuriating to see people trying to erase it. I’m not even ace myself, and please do not mistake me, I do not claim to pretend what it’s like to be ace or speak on behalf of the ace community. I still have a lot more to learn myself in regard to the ace community and its many complexities and intricacies, but I am a pan woman who knows what it’s like to be discriminated against for your sexual orientation and I am sick to death of seeing severely outnumbered, underrecognized, and underrepresented people belonging to this orientation continually erased from the spectrum.